The Dive

I make it a point that I don't let my rage take control. We all come to a tipping point at times. My friends would know that I get pissed very rarely, and as far as my memories go, there were only handful of incidents. And I regret all of them. No good comes out of an angry head. It is never fun. All it leaves are scars for life. Well, as one of my friends quoted: "One who angers you, masters you." Can't agree more.

The more he looked, the more he saw pain in the world yonder.
Wakes up everyday, setting the weight on his shoulders aside,
Navigate from dawn to dusk and watch the sun subside.
Unwillingly, he chased the sunset of his own life.
One more day. One more day closer.

All he yearned was to spread smiles in the journey.
Unfazed by his heartbeats, he told them what they wished to hear.
Yet once a while, he observed the fake world near
Actors, manipulators, crooks, con-artists all around him.
How he wished he could make amends, into the way it should be.

He dived into calmness of the pool around him.

Words escaped his lips, before he thought it through.
Turns back to see chaos, delivered by his words, muddying the pool.
The dirt of his doing dripped down his back as he rose.
Things won't be the same, even in his dreams.

The audience around the pool sneered aloud.
"Lie, you should, if you seek your place in this show of clown faces,"
Worn he was of pretensions and so he lived on with his differences.
Mistaken by pride and principles, he might have been.
I ask you, my friend, would you have the courage to do the same?

The thin line between being a Cynic and a Critic

Have you seen this guy on the right, people?  "The Thinker" that's what he's called. Ever wondered why he's crouching so low? Some may say he's deep in his thought. I beg to differ. It is the weight of his preoccupation hanging on his shoulders. Can't you see this guy is depressed?!

Knowing too much can be a pain in the neck. To be enlightened about world (read: too much of news, Facebook shares, Twitter, TV, and Googling) burdens your mind with negativity. Then, your dear friend make you sit and watch a bunch of Youtube conspiracy theories. Follows a ranting session on "how the world has gone to the dogs", "scams", "corporates", and "corruption". Keep doing that, and before you know it, you'll end up bitter and start sneering at everything around you.

Now that we have established media hype and bias, what's your next best option? They say ignorance is bliss. So, it would have been better to not read the news, drink a cup of coffee and enjoy the evening, right? WRONG! It's no fun being a dumb retard either.

• Choose your sources wisely. If you read the Times of India regularly and believe in all the speculations on Aaj Tak, lobotomy is your best option. (Not just these two, but I could name other lost causes.)
• Be curious. Question. Most of the conspiracy theories and e-mail hoaxes are with "evidence" that are webpages on the Net itself. Authentic, isn't it? I'm not asking you to Google to prove it. It's like that line in Alchemist:   "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." Google will always deliver whatever you seek. Don't mug up any such fact on the net.
• Follow blogs and opinions by unbiased people. That my friend, is a good start to clear your head and form opinions.

Here are some "few good men":
Noam Chomsky, Ramesh Srivats, Richard Dawkins
and many political satirists like: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Sumeet Raghavan. Do tell me if there are others of the same repute. I would be interested.

Being a Malayali

... and not a Keralite.

I've been away from my homeland, for two years straight. Situations throw you into a mish-mash  of people hailing from all over India, and I accept, it was weird and unsettling in the beginning. But you change overtime, slowly. And armed with the following superpowers vested in you, life out there is cakewalk.

• Listen and adapt - I don't know how true this is, but a friend of mine said that Malayalam is the second most difficult language to learn, right under Mandarin. But it seems plausible, since it is an elaborately designed tongue. The uninitiated would find it hard to even tell the words apart as we speak! There are hardly any breaks between words - it just rolls and gurgles on to the end. Since it's hard for others to learn our language, you are left with no option, but to learn theirs - which comes with ease, slowly but surely.
• Encrypted tongue - It works most of the time. You could shout and abuse each other in the metro, in the bus, or even in the middle of the road, and no one would have a clue. Somethings that you don't get to do back home. But.... there is a catch.
• Wherever you go, they are there - It's like an epidemic. You find them everywhere, even where you don't expect them at all! Sometimes they just pretend to be an outsider, and overhear all your conversations. And they'd just leave with a oneliner in Malayalam at the end, making you look like a total  ശശി .
• One for all, and all for one - Back in Kerala, you just get tired of seeing too many "blaady mallus." But once you realise you are alone, even a complete stranger would seem like a long lost friend (if he's some random connection with you, god help him). And you would end up conversing stuff that you normally wouldn't ... to a stranger, c'mon! You are that vulnerable.

At the end of day, you have your bunch of friends, who reassure you that the place you live in is a home away from home. That occasional taste of the native cuisine, is enough to drive your miseries away and keep you going.